On the heels of his Barcelona win, Hikaru had another astonishing result in Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean Sea. Hikaru took clear first in the
Corsica blitz tournament (October 28-29), in which 14 out of 400 players qualified into the Knockout stage. Hikaru joined Rustam Kasimzhanov and Anatoly Karpov in the rapid Knockout (October 29-30) with a 62,000 Euro prize fund.

Hikaru went on to defeat one strong GM after
another, (Mikhalevski, Van Wely, Bareev) making it to the final where he defeated the former World Champ,
Rustam Kasimzhanov. After winning it all, Hikaru told CLO that Corsica was "awesome", explaining that besides his result, he liked Corsica because French girls were the nicest in the world. His favorite game was his win with White against Van Wely in the first tiebreak game in the quarter-finals. Why? Because it was "awesome."

Here is the win that clinched him first place, and the 20,000 Euro first prize.